Back to Seoul, but not to Korean food. If Gwanghwamun Gukbap is a restaurant we’ve eaten at on all our trips to Seoul as a family in the last three years, Tim Ho Wan is another. Well, technically, we’ve not eaten at the same location on every visit. In 2024 we ate at the branch in Gangnam-gu; in 2025 we ate at the branch in the iPark mall in Yongsan-gu. In 2026, we returned to the Yongsan-gu branch. Why are we eating dim sum in Seoul? Well, because the quality of the dim sum at the Seoul locations of Tim Ho Wan so outstrips anything available in Minnesota that it would be foolish not to. If we lived in Los Angeles it might be a different story. As it happens, there’s a good chance we might not return to Tim Ho Wan on our next trip. But that’s not because this meal was bad; it’s because later we ate dim sum at another place much closer to where we usually put up that was even better. More on that later; here now is a quick look at this meal.

On our previous visit we’d had some trouble finding the restaurant in the mall. We’d assumed it was inside in the main mall, whereas it turned out to be off to the side with a separate exterior entrance. This time we knew where to go. On the other hand, last time we’d eaten there on a weekday and had been seated right away. This time we were there on a Sunday (when they don’t take reservations) and ended up having to wait for almost 40 minutes. Once seated, however, we quickly got down to business.

The menu is on a tablet at each table, as previous, and you order directly from it and then pay at the cashier at front at departure. As they were very busy we decided to order everything at once. Later, we added on a couple of things. What did we eat?

First out was their excellent seasonal green vegetables: steamed greens of one kind or the other in a pool of seasoned soy sauce with fried garlic on top. Then the thing everyone goes to Tim Ho Wan for: their marvellous baked barbeque pork buns. Outstanding as always. As were the shrimp cheung fun (steamed rice noodle rolls). Then a slew of things arrived in quick succession: pan-fried radish cake; shiumai, shiumai with abalone, hargow, xiaolongbao and black truffle xiaolongbao. All were very tasty but I can tell you there’s no real reason to get shiumai with abalone or black truffle xiaolongbao: in both cases it’s more about the look than the taste. Next up, a couple of fried dishes: fried rice with xo sauce and deep-fried squid. Both were very good.

We were full at this point but also greedy. We’d liked the cheung fun a lot and so got another order, this time with bbq pork; very good as well but we all preferred the shrimp. Finally, steamed pork dumplings in a hot and spicy sauce. We’d enjoyed this greatly at our first meal in 2024 and it was excellent again. Oh yes, we’d got an order of the Hong Kong style egg custard tart in our big first wave but had asked our server to hold it for the end. It was enjoyed mightily as dessert.

For a look at everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next on the food front.

Despite their being slammed, service was very good. Cost? The total was 137,100 won, which comes to just short of $100. In the Twin Cities we’d pay a lot more for far inferior quality. So it goes.

But as I said, we had even better dim sum later in the trip. That was at the Seoul location of Crystal Jade. I’ll report on that a few weeks later (and on another Chinese meal that was even better than that one). Tomorrow, however, I’ll have a report from Delhi. On Tuesday another report from Bombay and on Wednesday, a report on our very good dinner last night at Myriel in St. Paul.